The Comics of Chris Ware

Book excerpt: With contributions by David M. Ball, Georgiana Banita, Margaret Fink Berman, Jacob Brogan, Isaac Cates, Joanna Davis-McElligatt, Shawn Gilmore, Matt Godbey, Jeet Heer, Martha B. Kuhlman, Katherine Roeder, Peter R. Sattler, Marc Singer, Benjamin Widiss, and Daniel Worden The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing Is a Way of Thinking brings together contributions from established and emerging scholars about the comics of Chicago-based cartoonist Chris Ware (b. 1967). Both inside and outside academic circles, Ware's work is rapidly being distinguished as essential to the developing canon of the graphic novel. Winner of the 2001 Guardian First Book Prize for the genre-defining Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Ware has received numerous accolades from both the literary and comics establishment. This collection addresses the range of Ware's work from his earliest drawings in the 1990s in The ACME Novelty Library and his acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan, to his most recent works-in-progress, “Building Stories” and “Rusty Brown.”